SK: Establishment of Nuclear Secretariat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Minister Duncan Announces Establishment Of Nuclear Secretariat

[ https://www.saskatchewan.ca/government/ ... ecretariat ]

Released on June 24, 2020

Today, the Government of Saskatchewan is announcing plans to establish an office to coordinate nuclear policy and program work within the Climate Change & Adaptation Division in the Ministry of Environment. The development and execution of a strategic plan for deployment of clean energy small modular reactors will be the primary mandate of the Nuclear Secretariat.

“The deployment of small modular reactors in Saskatchewan will require collaboration with several partners to fully encompass the benefits Saskatchewan could see in way of jobs, enhanced value-chains for Saskatchewan’s uranium, and our made-in-Saskatchewan climate policy,” Environment Minister Dustin Duncan said.

Last Fall, Premier Moe led a MOU on small modular reactors with the Premiers of Ontario and New Brunswick to cooperate in deploying this new technology across the country. Broader collaboration with the Government of Saskatchewan will facilitate opportunities within the province for financing, regulation, labour capacity, public engagement and economic growth.

“Clean nuclear energy will provide Saskatchewan the tools to fight climate change,” Duncan said. “The advancement of small modular reactors in Canada brings economic and environmental benefits with new clean technology that is also safe, reliable and competitively priced power.”

Small modular reactors are nuclear power reactors that can produce electricity in the range of 50 to 300 megawatts, as compared to current nuclear power plants that range between 600 and 1,600 megawatts. Small modular reactors are low emitting technology that can provide baseload power within an electrical grid.

As utilities across Canada, including provinces and territories, explore pathways in the federal government’s Small Modular Reactor Roadmap, the Government of Saskatchewan will be ready to continue to support the economic and environmental benefits this new clean technology will bring. -30-

For more information, contact:

Matthew Glover
Executive Council
Regina
Phone: 306-787-2127
Email: matthew.glover@gov.sk.ca

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Nuclear giants team up to develop reactors in Sask. and Ontario

[ https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/0 ... nd-ontario ]

By Michael Bramadat-Willcock | News, La Ronge, Saskatchewan | August 21, 2020

PHOTO: Ontario Premier Doug Ford, centre, speaks to reporters as Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, right, and New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs look on during a meeting of Canada's premiers in Montreal, on Dec. 6, 2018. File photo by The Canadian Press/Graham Hug

Canada’s leading nuclear industry players announced an inter-provincial corporate partnership Thursday to support the launch of a research centre that will work on developing small modular reactors (SMRs) for use in Saskatchewan.

Saskatoon-based Cameco is the world’s biggest uranium producer and has long supplied fuel to Bruce Power, Ontario’s largest nuclear power company.

SMRs are designed to produce smaller amounts of electricity, between 50 and 300 megawatts, without the emissions usually associated with power generation.

(All the uranium mines in Canada are in Saskatchewan while processing, refining, conversion, fuel fabrication, research and waste management happen on a national scale with nuclear power stations in Ontario and New Brunswick. Source: Natural Resources Canada.)

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said nuclear power is a critical part of the solution to climate change and will help rural and remote communities as a new base for the electrical grid.

“We are not going to be able to deal with things like climate change or very broad issues if we are not going to commit to integrating nuclear power into our systems. It has to be part of the solutions. We simply are unable to get the job done without it,” Moe said.

In December, Moe signed a memorandum of understanding with the premiers of Ontario and New Brunswick to work together on further developing the nuclear industry.

The partnership between Cameco and Bruce Power will also research developing infrastructure for hydrogen technologies and cancer-fighting isotopes.

“This new initiative will help drive Ontario-made and Canadian-made innovation for these emerging technologies and support our province’s economic recovery,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said.

This agreement comes on the heels of Saskatchewan announcing a nuclear secretariat to make way for reactors.

“That technology is a long ways away and a lot of it’s going to depend on... the court of public opinion, whether or not people want that in their own backyard, and that’s the whole issue anywhere in the world," Brooke Dobni.

The secretariat is mandated to develop and execute a strategic plan for the use of “clean-energy small modular reactors” in the province.

“The deployment of small modular reactors in Saskatchewan will require collaboration with several partners to fully encompass the benefits Saskatchewan could see in way of jobs, enhanced value chains for Saskatchewan’s uranium, and our made-in-Saskatchewan climate policy,” Environment Minister Dustin Duncan said in June.

No timeframe or SMR sites were included in the announcement, but the government’s plans already have some northern residents raising alarms.

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